Randy Weaver of
Crossville, Tenn. crossed the stripein third followed by 16th starting Don O'Neal of
Martinsville, Ind.

A wild first lap saw
Bub McCool and Ray Cook get together on the backstretch,

Scott Bloomquist sails toward another big win at Cherokee Speedway for his fourth win of the young
season.(George Missita)

with Cook suffering
heavy damageto his car. Cook went
several laps down as his crew made repairs to the car. During the red flag period,outside front row starter Dan Schlieper went to the pits
for the night after fluid began leaking out fromunder his car, putting Chris Madden to the outside of polesitter
John Blankenship.

The second time would
be a charm to get the race underway as Madden took the lead over McDowell, while ChrisWall quickly dropped John Blankenship to fourth.
McDowell started to put the heat on Madden for the lead,pulling even on lap 10 and nudging ahead on the next
lap. One lap later, the second caution of the race flew asMcCool slowed on the backstretch.

The restart saw
McDowell and hometown favorite Madden still batttling with 16 laps complete. Bloomquist, whostarted seventh, was in
the hunt by then,

running fourth and
bringing Weaver with him. Wall,who was the RedBuck Cigars fast qualifier for the night was doing a
good job in fighting off the challenges of the two whileMcDowell and Madden raced through traffic.

Madden pulled dead even
with McDowell on lap 27 as the crowd came to its collective feet. McDowell led lap 28,but a circuit later Madden was scored as the leader.
Madden then took a five length lead over McDowell on lap32 and looked to have the car to beat in the remaining
laps, but McDowell re-grouped and closed quickly.

Don O'Neal, John Pursley, and Clint Smith all have the right
idea at Cherokee Speedway, "Wherever there is, get there before he does." (Rick Schwallie)

Meanwhile,
Bloomquist and Weaver had managed to get around Wall back on lap 38 to take over third and fourth,but they looked to be too far out of it to
make a run in the final laps until after Bloomquist went aroundMadden on lap 45, a caution flew with four to
go.

McDowell was under
constant pressure from Bloomquist at that point, and as the two drivers took the white flag,McDowell moved up just enough out of
the groove to allow Bloomquist room on the bottom to pull even, then slideup in front of McDowell through turn four on the
final lap. Bloomquist got the win by one car length as astunned crowd looked on.

In the Lucas Oil
Victory Lane for the 20th time in his career, the reigning series champion was out of breathin his post-race interview. "Well the
car wassuper, it just got better and better as the race went on,everything went well today for us, Chris (Madden)
is good at this place, and we share a lot of information. Ifhe would have had my tire combination on, he would
have won," said the 46-year-old driver who is quicklyapproaching 500 career wins.

Scott
Bloomquist, swamped in confetti after his Lucas Oil Series win at Cherokee Speedway. (George
Missita)